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I’m a peculiar sort of wanderlust. I have only a marginal interest in going to see places that make it to “seven wonders” status, like the Pyramids or the Coliseum. When I look at a map — or Google Earth — my eyes are drawn to the most touristically-neglected parts of the map, as well as countries with unpronounceable names, barely-navigable terrain, and desolate, wide-open spaces. Last night a friend was telling me about his trip to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and I found myself becoming unaccountably jealous. I’ve never been to any ’stans!
We’re planning a trip to Eastern Europe next year — Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic — and that should help ease the pangs of wanderlust a bit, though I’ll probably end up wishing I’d gone 10 or 15 years ago. Last spring I made it to Death Valley, and that was breathtakingly remote and beautiful (and surprisingly filled with cool and varied things to see).
The Sierra Club just released a custom Google Earth map marking “the 52 wildest places” in North America (with an eye toward keeping them that way). I’ve been to a few of them: the Everglades (I grew up in Florida) and Oregon’s Mount Hood.
A few places on my global to-do list: Greenland, Alaska, Siberia, Northern Canada, Tierra del Fuego, Madagascar. What’s the wildest place you’ve ever been?
Comments (38)
Comment
i went to slovakia a couple of years ago and the oddest place we visited was some old war-site on the slovakia/poland border. the actual border between the 2 countries was literally 2 dirt lines running next to the lookout tower. i forget what town that we were in though. Eastern Europe is definitely the coolest place to visit for experiencing some wacky stuff.
posted by samantha on 10-5-2007 at 9:57 am
I applaud your desire to make it to Siberia- it’s the best place I’ve been. A great mix of cultures, beautiful expanse… and you must try BANYA.
posted by Lindsay on 10-5-2007 at 10:08 am
i, too, have been to eastern europe… very interesting place and can be very challenging to traveller that only speaks english,
by the way… i found very few people in poland (outside of hostel and tourist traps) that could speak english, but that was the fun part for me! dont think even about going without your polish phrase book. i would not describe as wild, unless you get up into the mountains, of course!
the wildest place i have every been was the ring of kerry in ireland. i was standing on shoreline surrounded by a beautiful ring of cliffs that went for miles and quite … and there was not another soul to be seen… just me and the sounds of birds and waves… breathtaking.
posted by joehawkins on 10-5-2007 at 10:11 am
I went to Los Roques in Venezuela.
Its an amazing archipelago which was declared a National Park in 1972. I would consider it wild because it all natural and untouched.
Its made up of a bunch of islands some of which are so tiny that you can’t even lay your towel down because the soft waves come from all sides. Your own little private island that the next day will be wherever the waves move it to.
No hotels (just small posadas), no cars, no clubs, no casinos. Just natural beauty.
The airport is just a small sandy runway where the local dogs come greet you and the empanada stand is a few steps away!
Just google Los Roques Venezuela to see photos.
posted by Sweet Pea on 10-5-2007 at 10:20 am
Ransom-
Hungary is my favorite!
Email me if you need a place to stay on the cheap.
posted by magyarlany on 10-5-2007 at 10:27 am
I lived in the Northwest Territories, Canada on Great Slave Lake for a while, and it was totally wild! Totally barren. Between the Harsh 8 foot waves the lake created and the bears, wolves, and other wildlife that inhabited the oasis there was myself and a few other fishermen doing what too many people miss out on, living! There was 24 hour daylight, huge fish, 30-40 Lbs. no roads, no cell phones, just a fishing pole and open fire.
posted by Shelleydee on 10-5-2007 at 10:30 am
The Utah canyonlands. Amazingly beautiful and full of wonderful things. I found an arrowhead, and it totally made my day.
posted by bryn on 10-5-2007 at 10:36 am
My brand new husband and I just returned from our honeymoon in Iceland. What a different world from my crowded hometown in NJ. The open spaces, the lava fields, the treeless landscape (very alien), the majestic basalt columns carved by the Atlantic, the immense glaciers and volcanos, the waterfalls, puffins, and Thingvillar… the place where the American continental plate meets the European continental plate. Breathtaking and enchanting!
posted by Audrey on 10-5-2007 at 10:38 am
Antarctica, McMurdo, I went there on an oil tanker to load up the research station, it was pretty cool, playing on the ice with the penguins, etc. Except there was only one bar in the whole place, which kinda sucked.
posted by gussie on 10-5-2007 at 10:38 am
In 2006, while in the middle of a three-year Alaskan tour, I drove to Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay(amongst other wild and woolly places). There are towns farther north than Deadhorse, but you must fly to get to them. The town is on the Arctic Ocean, and I believe it is as far north as you can drive in America.
I’ve seen some pretty crazy places in Afghanistan, Iraq, Qatar, UAE as well, but they werent exactly vacation spots.
posted by Andrew on 10-5-2007 at 10:42 am
Australia is by far the wildest place I have ever been to. It is amazing, both on land and off. The Outback has kangaroos, wombats, and emus. However, the Great Barrier Reef is even better. The aquatic life is abundant and incredible. I would go back in a heartbeat and recommend a trip to Australia to anyone.
posted by Andrew on 10-5-2007 at 11:03 am
The Skeleton Coast in Namibia is the wildest place I’ve ever been. Lions and elephants on the beaches, not a person or a building in sight. My parents took us there as children when we lived in Namibia for 10 years.
Thanks for the link.
posted by Tracy on 10-5-2007 at 11:03 am
Oh man, you gotta go to the island of Papua. Whether you go to the Indonesian half of the island or Papua New Guinea, you just can’t get any wilder than that.
I just got back from the Indonsian half of Papua. Since Indonesia is on the US’s “Travel Warning” list, there were nearly no tourists. It was glorious.
Also, if you like intense hiking, that is DEFINITELY the place to go. There are no words that can describe how utterly intense the trails are, and I don’t think our american minds (full of images of approved trails) could even begin to imagine what they are like.
And there are tribal people everywhere. I just don’t think it gets any wilder than that!
posted by Lindsey on 10-5-2007 at 11:10 am
If by wild you mean “most like wilderness” then Antarctica (dangit gussie!) and/or Isle Royal National Park in Lake Superior.
If by wild you mean crazy, then the central market in Stone Town, Zanzibar. But that’s not really wilderness. Zanzibar is, however, the only place I’ve ever been without a trace of western civilization.
posted by RSN on 10-5-2007 at 11:14 am
Goblin Valley is the weirdest natural place I have ever visited. Located in Southern Utah, it seems like it is from another planet. It gets slightly creepy at dusk; the ‘goblin’ structures cast some strange shadows.
The PBS show Nature ran a documentary about the Falling Lakes in Croatia. That place looked like both definitions of wild. I want to go there.
posted by n2y2 on 10-5-2007 at 11:47 am
Audrey — I have to agree — Iceland is the most breathtakingly beautiful place. Geysers, waterfalls, hot springs, glaciers, and so many Icelandic ponies! Some favourite must-see spots — Reykjavik (of course), Dyrholaey, Asbyrgi Canyon, Akureyri, Thingvellir, Skaftafell National Park, calving icebergs at Jokulsarlon, Svartifoss and Godafoss — gorgeous, peaceful, heaven!
posted by obibonkenobi on 10-5-2007 at 12:17 pm
The wildest places I have ever been would be some of the illegal speakeasys along the southern Kentucky border. But if you are asking about the most exotic place, that would have to be China.
posted by Miss Cellania on 10-5-2007 at 12:30 pm
A greenhouse that had bulimic venus fly traps.
posted by Jeremiah on 10-5-2007 at 12:40 pm
Hiking around the Matterhorn in southern Switzerland. Some of the ‘villages’ had just a couple houses and no commercial enterprise at all. Not so much in the way of wild animals but the landscape was incredible.
posted by Jim on 10-5-2007 at 12:58 pm
The jungles of Panama. Interesting people, an entirely different ecosystem, hot and humid. The tribal people were wonderful, but the climate just about killed me.
posted by Cyndi on 10-5-2007 at 1:05 pm
Probably the wildest place for me would be rural Burma- some of the most beautiful country I’ve seen. Bagan’s spectacular (and by Burmese standards a tourist trap- there were almost 40 tourists there!) and Lake Inle is fascinating for the various tribal cultures that surround it and makes for a nice, cool, high-altitude respite from the oppressive heat of the lowlands.
I get feeling that what’s being asked for is the most inhospitable places. That wouldn’t be Burma- while the terrain is pretty forgiving, anytime there’s at least one local around (which is always), you’re made to feel at home. Well, as long as that local isn’t a government spy. OK, so that’s inhospitable.
posted by Drew on 10-5-2007 at 1:19 pm
I’ve lived all over the world, and one of the least tourist-y, and most ‘wild’ places I’ve been is the island of Saipan and Tinian. The islands have power and a hotel or two, but oddly enough, they’re not a tourist spot AT ALL! My wife and I went down to a “local” beach — pristine sand and coral beaches, and we were basically alone. The jungles are overgrown and you can still find old Japanese caves and battlements (and yes, land mines - yikes!) hidden away since they were abandoned during WWII. Is it the most secluded and wild place on earth? No, but it is definitely up there on the list!
posted by Sim on 10-5-2007 at 1:27 pm
For the place to get away from the tourists, I have to recommend Crash Boat Beach in Puerto Rico. There are virtually no waves, and there is a skeleton of a beached tanker from the 1940’s there. All the locals know about it, but if you go when school is in session it is deserted. You have to be driving directly to the beach to get there. You will never stumble upon it. It’s on the NW side of the island and you have to wind through 3 or 4 city roads that are barely wide enough for 2 cars to fit. There are little caves in the cliffs that jut out from behind the beach. There are also old moorings from which you can jump into the crystal clear water. My god, it was almost a religious experience. The water was warm, calm, and you can see 20 feet in any direction. Little crabs play around in the beached tanker and in the little pools around it. If you go there, plan on doing nothing but relaxing. My favorite place in the world, to date. (Been to NZ, Australia, Hawaii, Cancun, Mexico, etc.) It’s actually difficult to find good pictures of Crash Boat in Aguadilla, PR because it’s no a tourist spot. Most of the poeple who know about it are locals. And, it’s about a 1.5 hrs by car to get there. Just follow the map and you can get there. But it’s not that easy! Go there! PR is one of America’s best kept secrets!
posted by Tommy M on 10-5-2007 at 2:36 pm
It’s definitely not exotic nor remote–and its essentially the anti-untouched–but the Salton Sea in California is probably the wildest place I’ve ever been to.
I don’t know what was weirder, Salvation Mountain, made entirely out of layers of paint; the multitude of resort ghost towns from the 1950s; the large piles of junk and trash sitting about; the thousands of dead fish washed up on the shore due to the toxicity of the water; or the fact that they’re selling new homes there for $200,000?
It’s probably what the Sierra Club is trying to caution us about, but it’s strangely beautiful in its own right.
posted by Lauren on 10-5-2007 at 3:29 pm
Nearly a ’stan but not quite - Azerbaijan is an amazing place with weird lunar landscapes, tank graveyards, on-fire natural gas shooting out of the ground, ancient persian temples and a beautiful old city. Highly recommended.
posted by Lisa on 10-5-2007 at 7:07 pm
Definitely the Golden Triangle. A native friend took me by boat to his fathers’ village rarely visited by ousiders. I pulled out my camera to take some pics of the spectacular jungle and warning shots were fired at us. Got wise, put the camera away and viewed some of the most pristine landscape I’d ever seen!
posted by Gaofeilong on 10-6-2007 at 12:43 am
I’ve been to Dukla Pass between Slovakia and Poland as well - great Soviet Union/Nazi Germany historical site.
The wildest place I’ve been is Siberia. I traveled there from Moscow via Trans-Siberian with a friend. I’ve stood on the shores of Lake Baikal. Whenever I see a map or globe I always turn to Siberia, and am amazed at just how far away I really was, from anything.
posted by Julie on 10-6-2007 at 5:54 am
Wildest place I’ve ever been? I’ve been a lot of places. Chances are, you don’t want to ge there…
Hmmmm - #1 Deadwood SD - full of midwestern & Canadian tourists in search of something exotic (that’d be me), followed by #2, the Castro District in SF.
Moving along; a rather interesting time was had in the Central Highlands of VietNam and Cambodia. Can’t recommend it tho. They’re not real fond of strangers.
posted by doc on 10-6-2007 at 7:46 am
Sorry about mis-spelled words in previous post. Was thinking in Gaelic.
It’s troublesome when one thinks in more than one language simultaneously. Bloody hell when one is thinking in Gaelic, Latin, and Greek at the same time, then typing in English/Anglish/Anglo-Saxon. You have no idea how confused I get when that happens. I’ll try to be more focused in the future.
Doc
posted by Doc on 10-6-2007 at 8:01 am
Delighted to see the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on Google’s list! My three offspring live on the western edge of the monument (my oldest daughter has a famous restaurant in the tiny town of Boulder, Utah, and the other two work for her), so I get to go there three or four times a year to visit them and the grandchildren, and it is truly wild, absolutely spectacularly beautiful, very remote and uninhabited for the most part. One can truly get a sense of being totally alone in the midst of some of the most pristine and breathtaking scenery on the face of the earth. It’s hard to get to, but completely worth the effort!
posted by Dolly on 10-6-2007 at 11:22 am
I’m with you, Ransom; if it’s in a tourist guide, count me uninterested. I’m all for the backroads and out-of-the-way places that nobody else (including my wife & kids) are interested in. Even the nondescript places have great stories behind them and are filled with character (and real characters), but since they’re not on a somebody’s list, they get forgotten. That’s a shame. The vacation I’d love to go on someday is to hop on a motorcycle and go wherever the front wheel leads; no destination & no schedules, seeing whatever there is to see.
The wildest — as in the furthest from the comforts of US/Western culture — would have to be Cameroon (west Africa). But there are places much closer to home that are truly wild - as in relatively untouched by human influence; the prairies of western South Dakota & Nebraska, the mountains of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, etc… To be in a place where you can see no one, hear nothing but what is nature; that’s the wild I look for.
posted by Dave on 10-7-2007 at 10:28 am
I went to Honduras,I was actually there when 9/11 happened. We were inthe mountains where people still live in straw huts and cook by fire outside, no windows (glass) etc….It was very relaxing and beautiful because there were no lights and you could view the Milky Way in all its glory. I also had a small scope and saw many things hard to see in america. Oh yea, there were the snakes, scorpions, and tarantulas. You always shake your shoes before putting them on!
posted by John Brown on 10-7-2007 at 1:37 pm
When you’re in Hungary, you have to go to Budapest. It’s a big city, but it’s got some great stuff. I lived in Hungary for eleven months a year or two ago, and it’s one of the best cities I visited. Bratislava is great, too, as is Venice, although that’s a little out of the way. Vienna and Prague are very touristy, though. Vienna, especially, isn’t really worth it.
posted by Pointy-Hatted Geek on 10-7-2007 at 3:03 pm
I love looking at photos of the USA at night. It’s so reassuring to see the completely black, unpopulated spots out west.
posted by jamie g on 10-7-2007 at 7:37 pm
Let’s see… The craziest place I ever went to was the DMZ between North and South Korea. I went with the USO (the US Army tour) because I wanted a good tour, and I don’t like being shot at. It was amazing. I’ve never been anywhere more surreal, there were North Korean guards staring at us through binoculars, there was the MASSIVE North Korean flag just beyond the DMZ… the whole thing was ridiculously amazing. The flag I mentioned was too heavy to actually flap in the wind, and required several men to hoist it up and down the flag pole. And it “flew” over the pretend village on the Northern side of the DMZ. Apparently, at the “end” of the war, both Koreas wanted the rights to build a town inside the DMZ (why I really don’t know) so to be fair, the agreement was that there would be one town on each side. Well, the South Korean one is a bunch of farmers who are actually quite rich, they pay no taxes, and there are all kinds of crazy rules… The North Korean one isn’t actually inhabited. It’s empty buildings with automatic lights, and the gov’t sends messages about how wonderful North Korea is over a loud speaker all day long. It’s by far the most bizarre place imaginable. Definitely worth a visit.
By the way, Poland is a really cool country to visit, I didn’t like Warsaw as much as Krakow, but Warsaw has some really cool museums and stuff about what happened during WWII. (the Warsaw Uprising Museum is absolutely AMAZING.) I loved Krakow, not too touristy, and it just has a really nice culture and atmosphere to it. Hel is also nice. A bit cold though. (it’s way up in the Baltic) There’s a whole lot of “off the beaten track” in Poland, and it’s all quite beautiful.
posted by greenstrawberries on 10-8-2007 at 3:17 am
Reconsidered…
One of the strangest places I’ve ever been (thanks, greenstrawberries) was playing a gig at Camp Boniface near the DMZ on 4 July 1996 (it was a MWR tour) and being given a tour of the border. They have a 1-hole 3-par golf course there where if you hit your ball out of bounds there is a no-penalty free drop, ‘cuz the area is so heavily mined that if you go looking for your ball in the rough you could lose important body parts.
It was also interesting to think I was playing for US & Korean soldiers who were dialed in by the North Koreans so closely that there were 4 artillery shells for every 1 meter of real estate… and 20 N. Korean armored Divisions within a half-hour drive to the north. All they have for defence is a couple of M-60s and their personal arms. Not much use against tanks.
It wasn’t until the bus ride back to Seoul that I realized I’d just helped people celebrate Independance Day under the gunsights of folks we were (are) still technically at war. Scary. My roomie commented the following morning that I’d been having dreams - said it sounded like I was back in the jungle. I have not (recently) been so glad to see a country disappear behind my aircraft as I was that July afternoon when we cleared Korean airspace.
Other #1 strange things - Burning Man. Haven’t been since 2000, probably won’t go back. Too full of frat boys and lookie-loos these days. Used to be fun, tho.
posted by Doc on 10-8-2007 at 7:37 am
I spent a month on Mt Kenya, but the wildest part was after a night camping at Simba Tarn (above 15,000 feet) we woke up to a snow storm. Here we were in Africa, practically on the equator and we were getting snowed on. It was wild to say the least.
posted by Will on 10-8-2007 at 9:23 am
Haleakala crater on the Island of Maui. Definitely an otherworldly place. Not very remote, or unvisited.
posted by Stew on 10-8-2007 at 1:10 pm